MODULE 2 BIOTECHNOLOGY: HISTORY, STATE OF THE ART, … · Lecture Notes The Lecture notes offer an...
Transcript of MODULE 2 BIOTECHNOLOGY: HISTORY, STATE OF THE ART, … · Lecture Notes The Lecture notes offer an...
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Dr Marcel Daba BENGALY
Université Ouaga I Pr Joseph KI ZERBO
Final version, February 2017
Disclaimer This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the authors and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.
MODULE 2
BIOTECHNOLOGY: HISTORY, STATE
OF THE ART, FUTURE.
LECTURE NOTES: UNIT 2
THE GREEN REVOLUTION:
IMPACTS, LIMITS, AND THE PATH AHEAD
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PRESENTATION OF MODULE 2
INTRODUCTION
Achieving food security in its totality (food availability, economic and physical access to food,
food utilization and stability over time) continues to be a challenge not only for the developing
nations, but also for the developed world. The difference lies in the magnitude of the problem in
terms of its severity and proportion of the population affected. According to FAO statistics, a
total of 842 million people in 2011–13, or around one in eight people in the world, were
estimated to be suffering from chronic hunger. Despite overall progress, marked differences
across regions persist. Africa remains the region with the highest prevalence of
undernourishment, with more than one in five people estimated to be undernourished. One of the
underlying causes of food insecurity in African countries is the rapid population growth
(Africa's population is expected to reach 2.4 billion in 2050) that makes the food security
outlook worrisome. According to some projections, Africa will produce enough food for only
about a quarter of its population by 2025. How will Africa be able to cope with its food security
challenge? Is biotechnology is key to food security in Africa?
Biotechnology’s ability to eliminate malnutrition and hunger in developing countries through
production of crops resistant to pests and diseases, having longer shelf-lives, refined textures and
flavors, higher yields per units of land and time, tolerant to adverse weather and soil conditions,
etc, has been reviewed by several authors. If biotechnology per se is not a panacea for the
world’s problems of hunger and poverty, it offers outstanding potentials to increase the
efficiency of crop improvement, thus enhance global food production and availability in a
sustainable way. A common misconception being the thought that biotechnology is relatively
new and includes only DNA and genetic engineering. So, agricultural biotechnology is
especially a topic of considerable controversy worldwide and in Africa, and public debate is
This Unit 2 of Module 2 is an integral part of the six Master's level course modules (each of
20 hrs) in the field of agricultural biotechnology as elaborated by the EDULINK-FSBA project
(2013-2017) which are:
Module 1: Food security, agricultural systems and biotechnology
Module 2: Biotechnology: history, state of the art, future
Module 3: Public response to the rise of biotechnology
Module 4: Regulation on and policy approaches to biotechnology
Module 5: Ethics and world views in relation to biotechnology
Module 6: Tailoring biotechnology: towards societal responsibility and country
specific approaches
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fraught with polarized views and opinions. Therefore, working at the sustainable introduction of
biotechnology for food security in Africa requires a strong conceptual understanding by the
learner (stakeholders and future stakeholders) of what is biotechnology.
GENERAL OBJECTIVE OF THE MODULE:
The main objective of this module is to offer a broad view of biotechnology, integrating
historical, global current (classical and modern) and future applications in such a way that its
applications in Africa and expected developments could be discussed based on sound knowledge
of processes and methods used to manipulate living organisms or the substances and products
from these organisms for medical, agricultural, and industrial purposes.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:
On successful completion of this module, the learner should be able to:
Demonstrate knowledge of essential facts of the history of biotechnology and description
of key scientific events in the development of biotechnology
Demonstrate knowledge of the definitions and principles of ancient, classical, and
modern biotechnologies.
Describe the theory, practice and potential of current and future biotechnology.
Describe and begin to evaluate aspects of current and future research and applications in
biotechnology.
Select and properly manage information drawn from text books and article to
communicate ideas effectively by written, oral and visual means on biotechnology issues.
Demonstrate an appreciation of biotechnology in Africa especially in achieving food
security.
COURSE STRUCTURE
The content of the course is organized in five units as followed:
Unit 1: Introduction to biotechnology, history and concepts definition
Unit 2: The Green Revolution: impacts, limits, and the path ahead
Unit 3: Agricultural biotechnology: the state-of-the-art
Unit 4: Future trends and perspectives of agricultural biotechnology
Unit 5: Biotechnology in Africa: options and opportunities
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UNIT 2:
THE GREEN REVOLUTION:
IMPACTS, LIMITS, AND THE PATH AHEAD
(04 HOURS)
PRESENTATION
Objective
This unit is a retrospective study of the Green Revolution (GR) considered as one of the most
ground breaking technological renovation of agricultural practices that began in Mexico in the
1940s. The broader GR impacts at socioeconomic and environmental levels are presented; and
its achievement and limits in terms of agricultural productivity improvement is analysed in term
of food security. From the lessons learned and the strategic insights in Latin America, Asia and
Africa, the sustainability of technology introduction is discussed.
Content
The unit content 4 sections:
1. History of the GR: Growth and Political aspects (approx. 01 hour)
2. The GR and Food Security (approx. 01 hour)
3. Socioeconomic and environmental impacts of GR (approx. 01 hour)
4. Lessons learned from the GR (approx. 01 hour)
Course Delivery
Lecture Slides
The slides used in lectures are summaries that have as main objective to guide the learner in his
personal work (mainly reading the selected literature).
Reading the slides is not an adequate substitute for attending lectures. The slides do
not contain anything that the instructor says, writes on the board, or demonstrates
during lectures.
Lecture Notes
The Lecture notes offer an overview of a subject (you will need to fill in the detail) and detailed
information on a subject (you will need to fill in the background). It encourages taking an active
part in the lecture by doing reference reading.
This unit includes two learner assignments that relate to reading synthesis.
To continue
The learner may be interested in:
Module 1 of FSBA course on “Food security, agricultural systems and biotechnology”
Module 6 of FSBA course on “Tailoring biotechnology: towards societal responsibility
and country specific approaches”
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HISTORY OF THE GR: GROWTH AND POLITICAL ASPECTS
This section examines the rationale behind the GR from the historical and political background
that led to its development. The history is traced back to the 1940s and the technologies
developed and spread by GR (modern irrigation projects, pesticides, synthetic nitrogen fertilizer
and improved crop varieties) are presented. Through specific cases analyses (counties from Latin
America, Asia and Africa), an account is given about the precise political circumstances that
affected positively or negatively the GR adoption and success: role of state in agriculture, the
public research and extension systems, the influence of international and national institutions
and actors such as the Rockefeller Foundation and the U.S. government, etc.
What is Green Revolution ?
The term “Green Revolution” refers to a series of research, and development, and technology
transfer initiatives, occurring between the 1940s and the late 1960s, that increased agricultural
production worldwide, particularly in the developing world. The Green Revolution began as the
Mexican Agricultural Program (MAP) in 1943 under the auspice of the Rockefeller Foundation
before it was extended worldwide and the name “Green Revolution” was coined.
The term "Green Revolution" was first used in 1968 by former United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) director William Gaud, who noted the spread of the new
technologies: "These and other developments in the field of agriculture contain the makings of a
new revolution. It is not a violent Red Revolution like that of the Soviets, nor is it a White
Revolution like that of the Shah of Iran. I call it the Green Revolution."…
The initiatives, led by Norman Borlaug, the "Father of the GR" involved:
1. the development of high-yielding varieties of cereal grains,
2. expansion of irrigation infrastructure,
3. modernization of management techniques,
4. distribution of hybridized seeds, synthetic fertilizers, and pesticides to farmers.
Norman Ernest Borlaug (1914 – 2009) was an American humanitarian biologist (Ph.D. in
plant pathology and genetics). Credited with saving over a billion people from starvation,
he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 in recognition of his contributions to
world peace through increasing food supply.
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GR in Mexico
In the 1940s, Borlaug began research in Mexico and developed new disease resistance high-yield
varieties of wheat. By combining Borlaug's wheat varieties with new mechanized agricultural
technologies. Mexico was able to produce more wheat than was needed by its own citizens,
leading to its becoming an exporter of wheat by the 1960s. Prior to the use of these varieties, the
country was importing almost half of its wheat supply.
The historical implementation of GR in Mexico throughout is provided below in from the 1930's
up to 1960's
1930s
– 1933: John A. Ferrell of the Rockefeller Foundation proposed what later became the
Green Revolution to U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Josephus Daniels
– 1936: Ferrell speaks to a former minister of agriculture about the possibility of a
cooperative venture in agriculture between the Rockefeller Foundation and the Mexican
government. With the encouragement of the former minister, he writes to Rockefeller
Foundation president Raymond B. Fosdick.
1940s
– Late 1940: U.S. Vice President-Elect Henry A. Wallace goes to Mexico for the
inauguration of Mexican President Manuel Avila Camacho. He spends a month in
Mexico, traveling the country and often talking to farmers about their crops.
1941:
– February 3: Henry A. Wallace meets with Ferrell, Fosdick, Daniels, and Nelson
Rockefeller, proposing that the Rockefeller Foundation undertake a project to increase
agricultural productivity in Mexico.
– Fosdick meets with Warren Weaver, who then meets with Albert R. Mann. They propose
sending three experts to Mexico: Paul C. Mangelsdorf, Richard Bradfield, and Elvin C.
Stakman.
– July-December: Mangelsdorf, Stakman, and Bradfield travel and research in Mexico.
Upon their return, they propose a four man team located in or near Mexico city that
includes: an agronomist/soil scientist, a plant breeder, a plant pathologist/entomologist,
and an animal husbandman.
1943:
– February: With an invitation from the Mexican government, the Rockefeller Foundation
selects J. George Harrar as the director of the Mexican Agricultural Program.
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– February 10: The Rockefeller Foundation signs a Memorandum of Understanding with
the Mexican Government, citing the top two priorities as wheat rust and creating
improved maize varieties.
– Edwin J. Wellhausen, a maize geneticist, joins the program.
– The Office of Special Studies is established within Mexico's Ministry of Agriculture.
1944:
– October: Norman E. Borlaug, a plant pathologist and plant breeder, joins the program.
– MAP briefly attempts to improve the nutritional quality of the corn in the seed varieties it
created, but soon gave up. Joseph Cotter says, "Fighting malnutrition quickly became a
secondary objective of the MAP."
1946:
– By this point, 44 Mexicans had completed advanced agricultural studies in the U.S. and
10 others were enrolled. MAP scientists helped plan curriculum for many courses at
Mexico's National School of Agriculture, and J. George Harrar taught field plot
technique courses there.
– To improve the diet of Mexican peasants, Harrar "added vegetable cultivation and
breeding to the MAP's project list."
– The US government sends food aid to Mexico but decides not to do so in the future.
– Between 1946 and 1949, the USDA gave fellowships to 13 Mexican agricultural
students. Harrar evaluated their applications.
1947:
– MAP begins distributing corn seeds to farmers.
– MAP uses DDT and Benzine-hexachloride to control corn pests but "admitted that 'these
insecticides are too expensive for most Mexican farmers.”
– "George C. Marshall declared that the United States would devote most foreign aid to
'countries where conditions are so unstable that proper safeguards against ideological
coercion have weakened.'" The U.S. felt that Latin America was a safe region and
focused worries about Communism on Europe and then Asia. "The USDA did not
withdraw completely from Mexico but focused on prewar agendas like protecting U.S.
farmers and promoting complementary crops."
1948:
– "Wellhausen reported that farmers' demands for his new open-pollinated and hybrid
corns surpassed supply"
– MAP distributes wheat seeds resistant to stem rust to farmers.
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– MAP publishes a pamphlet on DDT and shows Mexican farmers how to use the
herbicide 2,4-D.
– The U.S. passes Public Law 402 authorizing use of govt funds for "a world-wide
program of scientific and technical exchange."
– Rockefeller Foundation exchanges information with the Office of Foreign Agricultural
Relations (OFAR) about their MAP program.
– Nelson Rockefeller visited Mexico to study MAP.
1949:
– By this time, "MAP conducted corn research at Chapingo, Celaya, Guadalajara, and
Morelos; worked on hybrids for the tropics; and tested wheat in Chapingo, Sonora, and
La Laguna. Responding to commercial farmers and other interests, the MAP studied seed
potatoes, safflower, an African oilseed, insect pests of tomatoes, potato diseases,
soybeans, and sorghum."
– In an effort to promote aquaculture to increase protein in Mexicans' diets, MAP had
Herbert S. Jackson build several demonstration ponds.
– MAP uses Parathion, Chlordane, and other pesticides on corn, beans, and wheat.
1950s
1950:
– By this time, Mexico's Corn Commission had promoted hybrid corn varieties in 9
Mexican states, MAP had conducted experiments in 19 states, had distributed new seed
in 22 states, and had distributed over 100kg of new seed in 10 states.
1951:
– Green Revolution wheat varieties covered 70% of all land planted in wheat.
1952:
– Mexico imported significant quantities of wheat, corn, rice, and even garbanzos.
1953:
– Norman Borlaug receives semi-dwarf wheat seeds that were the key to his breakthrough
in breeding high-yielding wheat. He begins using these seeds in 1954.
1955:
– Insecticide imports reach 30,526 metric tons (compared to only 432 in 1940).
1956:
– Mexico achieves wheat self-sufficiency. Late 1950s: From this point on, with the
exception of 1963, Mexico is "virtually self-sufficient in corn and wheat.".
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1960s
1962:
– Norman Borlaug released the first two semidwarf varieties to Mexican farmers.
1965:
– Green Revolution wheat varieties covered 80% of all land planted in wheat.
1966:
– The Office of Special Studies becomes the International Maize and Wheat Improvement
Center (CIMMYT)
1967:
– Chemical fertilizer use reaches 379,000 tons (up from 12,000 tons in 1950).
1968:
– Green Revolution wheat varieties covered 90% of all land planted in wheat.
– Green Revolution varieties are grown in 20% of Mexico's cornfields.
See more on GR in Mexico at:
a) http://rockarch.org/workshops/educators/leivarich.pdf
b) http://www.profmex.org/mexicoandtheworld/volume4/3summer99/99Boardman.pdf
c) https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01557305
GR in India
The Green Revolution in India was a period when agriculture in India increased its yields due to
improved agronomic technology. Green Revolution allowed developing countries, like India, to
overcome poor agricultural productivity. It started in India in the early 1960s and led to an
increase in food grain production, especially in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh during the
early phase. The main development was higher-yielding varieties of wheat, which were
developed by many scientists, including Indian geneticist M. S. Swaminathan,American
agronomist Dr. Norman Borlaug, and others. GR timeline in India is provided below:
1940s
– Summer 1942: The government of India began a formal Grow More Food campaign.
– 1943: The Great Bengal Famine occurs. Between 1.5 and 3 million Indians die.
– February-July 1944: The Advisory Board for the Imperial Council of Agricultural
Research (ICAR) plans India's participation in the UN FAO.
– 1946: Rockefeller Foundation president Raymond Fosdick finds the foundation under
criticism for their work on public health. With improved public health, would people in
poor countries be kept alive only to find themselves without food? Concern over
overpopulation focuses almost immediately on India.
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– 1947: India gains its independence from Britain.
– August 1948: The new Rockefeller Foundation president Chester I. Barnard raises the
issue of overpopulation with Warren Weaver.
– 1948: A pilot community development project begins in the Etawah District of Uttar
Pradesh, India.
– 1949: India's relationship with the U.S. fundamentally changes when China goes
Communist and the Soviet Union gets the atomic bomb. The U.S. sees food aid as a way
to keep India from going Communist; India requests and accepts U.S. food aid as a
means of preventing hunger but also keeping food cheap to promote industrialization
with low wages in its cities.
1950s
– 1951-1956: First Five Year Plan
– 1951: The Ford Foundation signs an agreement of $1.2 million with the Indian
government to train personnel for the community development project. The project
director was Douglas Ensminger.
– October 1951: The Rockefeller Foundation increases its agricultural budget to $1.5
million per year and commits to funding agricultural work in India.
– 1951: Rockefeller sends a study team composed of Warren Weaver, J. George Harrar,
and Paul C. Mangelsdorf to India.
– 1952: The U.S. Technical Cooperation Administration (the precursor of USAID) pledges
$50 million (matched by about $86 million from the Indian government) to support the
Community Development Project plus work to improve rural infrastructure.
– April 1952: Harrar, Weaver, and Mangelsdorf write "Notes on Indian Agriculture." "This
report led to several follow-up visits by [Rockefeller Foundation] representatives and
ultimately to India's request for a collaborative agricultural program." With this, the
Rockefeller Foundation launches its India Agricultural Program (IAP)
– 1953: India forms its National Extension Service (NES).
– 1955-56: At the encouragement of the U.S., India creates an Indo-American team to
study Indian agricultural universities and make recommendations. The recommendations
are for India to organize its universities like U.S. land grant universities.
– 1956-1961: Second Five Year Plan. India decides to de-emphasize agriculture in its
second Five Year plan.
– 1956: After five trips to India, Rockefeller Foundation finally comes to an agreement
with the Indian government.
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"It's possible that the Rockefeller Foundation's insistence that the most important
task at hand was basic research led to the four year delay in establishing an
operational program in India. The Government of India, the U.S. Technical
Cooperation Administration, and the Ford Foundation were more interested in
using existing knowledge for Community Development... In some ways, George
Harrar, Warren Weaver, and the other Foundation scientists... they did not
believe that the appropriate knowledge existed, so a scientific agriculture for
India had to be created almost from the beginning."
– 1956: The Rockefeller Foundation grants $1.38 million to help India develop the Indian
Agricultural Research Institute and to begin a "cereals" improvement program.
– 1957: Douglas Ensminger of the Ford Foundation spends three months traveling the
Indian countryside, writes a briefing paper for Nehru, and meets with him.
– 1959: A team put together by Ensminger, led by Sherman Johnson of the USDA
completes a report India's Food Crisis and Steps to Meet It. This shifts India from
focusing on social reform to improve agriculture to focusing instead on adoption of new
agricultural technologies.
– 1959: M.S. Swaminathan, an assistant cytogeneticist at Indian Agricultural Research
Institute in New Delhi, learns about the work of Orville Arthur Vogel with semidwarf
varieties of wheat that were able to utilize large amounts of commercial fertilizer and
produce high yields. Vogel puts him in touch with Norman Borlaug.
1960s
1963:
– March: Norman Borlaug visits India, where he is hosted by M.S. Swaminathan, spending
a month traveling to see Indian wheat varieties.
– November: A shipment of Mexican wheat varieties from Norman Borlaug arrives in
India.
1964:
– January 8: Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru suffers a stroke.
– March: Swaminathan asks Borlaug to send him 20 tons each of two Mexican varieties of
wheat for planting at 1000 acres of demonstration plots at research stations.
– May 27: Nehru dies.
– Lal Bahadur Shastri became Prime Minister and appoints C. Subramaniam as Minister of
Food and Agriculture.
– June: Shastri's "prices committee" recommends policies of government "incentive prices"
above market prices for grains and "larger investments in production inputs."
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– July: Subramaniam announces the Food Corporation of India, which will buy grains at
"prices attractive to farmers.
1965:
– January 1: Subramaniam gives a speech to the National Development Council,
Committee on Agriculture and Irrigation in which he calls for "wider use of science in
reforming Indian agriculture, including the use of better seeds, more and better use of
fertilizer, and more efficient use of irrigation."
– March and April: India decides to release two more varieties of hybrid wheat for
commercial production on irrigated land.
– June: B.P. Pal becomes director general of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research.
– Early July: The Indian government orders 200 tons of seed for one variety (Sonora 64)
from Borlaug.
– Late July: The Indian government ordered another 50 tons of the second variety (Lerma
Rojo 64A). Together, the 250 tons would be used for testing, demonstrations, and
distribution to 5000 farmers.
– Summer: U.S. State Department informs India that future food aid will be dependent on
India's allocation of foreign exchange for fertilizer or on building fertilizer plants in
India. "In addition, in August 1965, the Johnson administration put India on a virtually
month-to-month arrangement for food aid. These explicit links between population, food
aid, and agricultural policy were stimulated by a conference of demographers, policy
makers, and others, which was held in July and organized by the Rockefeller
Foundation."
– August: Subramaniam issues the plan "Agricultural Production in the Fourth Five Year
Plan: Strategy and Programme," bringing an official end to the government policy of
community development and instead supporting "agricultural entrepreneurs." (Whereas
the government made this shift five years earlier in theory, this plan marks a shift in
practice.)
– Late September: Following a war with Pakistan, India asks the Rockefeller Foundation
for 5000 tons of Mexican wheat seed to be planted in fall 1966.
– By November, the price of wheat has increased by 33 percent since 1964.
1966:
– January 11: Prime Minister Shastri dies.
– January 19: Nehru's daughter, Indira Gandhi, becomes Prime Minister.
– March: Indira Gandhi visits the U.S. "as part of the new government's efforts to improve
relations with the United States. Gandhi was obliged to meet the demands of the Johnson
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administration that India devalue the rupee, enhance its own ability to increase
agricultural production, and in other ways show evidence of development that were
consistent with what the world's largest capitalist country thought development should
be."
– February: India revises its request to the Rockefeller Foundation for Mexican wheat
seeds from 5000 tons to 2000 tons.
– April: India again revises its request for wheat seeds to 21,000 tons. J. George Harrar,
now President of Rockefeller Foundation, not wanting responsibility for any potential
failures of the wheat, offers India $100,000 to pay for wheat seed.
– An Indian team led by S.P. Kohli of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute goes to
Mexico to select and purchase wheat seeds for planting in 1966.
– July 18: The Indian purchase of 18,000 tons of hybrid wheat seeds is shipped from
Sonora, Mexico.
– Mid-September: The wheat seeds arrive in Gujarat, India.
– Green Revolution varieties of wheat covered 504,000 hectares in India in 1966-67.
– 1967: After this point, Indian grain production increases steadily.
1970s
– January 1972: B.P. Pal retires as director general of the Indian Council for Agricultural
Research and M.S. Swaminathan replaces him in that position.
– 1972-73: Green Revolution varieties of wheat covered 10 million hectares, a 20-fold
increase over the 1966-67 crop year.
See more on GR in India at:
a) http://www.apaari.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/ss_2004_03.pdf
b) https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/10838/2/MPRA_paper_10838.pdf
c) http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/149547/1/Rada_India%20Ag%20TFP%20AAEA%20
Submission_2013.pdf
GR in Africa:
Did Africa miss the 1st GR?
Contrary to the general notion that the "first GR“ (the original Green Revolution, which started
from the 1940s and reached its plateau in the 1980s) missed Africa, or that Africa missed the
GR, the drivers of the original GR actually did target Africa in the 1970s, but did not succeed.
International agricultural research centers were established as bodies of the CGIAR to promote
the Green Revolution’s one-size-fits-all technology package in Africa.
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All the International agricultural research centers International agricultural research centers but
failed to promote the Green Revolution in Africa. Reasons cited include widespread corruption,
insecurity, a lack of infrastructure, and a general lack of will on the part of the governments.
Yet environmental factors, such as the availability of water for irrigation, the high diversity in
slope and soil types in one given area are also reasons why the Green Revolution is not so
successful in Africa.
Is the one-size-fits-all technology package adapted to African farmers?
African farmers did not consume as much improved seeds, chemical pesticides and inorganic
fertilizers as their counterparts in South and Southeast Asia did…While the average fertilizer
application rate in South Asia almost tripled from 37 kg per hectare in 1980/81 to 109 kg per
hectare in 2000/01, the rate in Sub-Saharan Africa remained almost stagnant, increasing only
slightly from 8 kg per hectare to 9 kg.
The transnational corporations involved in selling hybrid seeds, chemical pesticides and
inorganic fertilizers obviously did not make much profit in Africa, mainly because African
farmers were poorer, the basic infrastructure was mostly absent, and Africa’s farming systems
and conditions were much more diverse…
Africa’s agricultural system is a mosaic of diverse farming, forestry and livestock
ecosystems where any one-size-fits-all formula appears doomed to fail.
The international geopolitical context
The international geopolitical context of the post-Cold War era is also markedly different from
that which prevailed at the time of the first Green Revolution when the Communist spectra was
part of the political motivations behind most rural development and agricultural programs of
governments in Asia and Latin America…
Examples CGIAR research centers in Africa:
– The Rockefeller-Ford duo had established the International Institute of Tropical
Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan, Nigeria in 1967.
– The West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA), now known as the
Africa Rice Center, based in Cotonou, Benin, was set up in 1970.
– The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)
was set up in 1977, followed by the International Council for Research in
Agroforesty (ICRAF) in 1978….
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“The Doubly Green Revolution”: Africa’s turn
Gordon Conway: A White Man’s Dream for Africa
As was the case with the Green Revolution in Asia, the vision for Africa’s development and
food security on which the New Green Revolution agenda is based is not drawn by an African,
nor is it based on Africa’s own experience. The template for a Green Revolution for Africa is
laid out by Gordon Conway in his book The Doubly Green Revolution: Food for All in the 21st
Century published in 1997.
The book provided the analytical framework for the Rockefeller Foundation’s promotion of a
New Green Revolution in Africa…According to Conway the world needs a “Doubly Green
Revolution” that repeats the successes of the old one through the development of high-yield
agricultural techniques while at the same time being ecologically safe, sustainable and equitable.
The CGIAR’s silver bullet: New Rice for Africa (NERICA)
CGIAR has been investing heavily in Africa over the years. In 2003, it allocated 45 percent of its
funds, equivalent to S$180 million, to projects in Sub-Saharan Africa, up from 43 percent the
previous year60. The largest amounts being allocated to WARDA, IITA, the World Agroforestry
Center, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the International Crops
Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). However, a close examination of the
CGIAR’s financial reports reveals that these allocations were actually spent on personnel, which
consumed 46 percent of the CGIAR’s funds in 2003, and supplies/services, which received an
allocation of 43 percent in the same year.
The CGIAR’s silver bullet for the Green Revolution in Africa follows the same trajectory taken
by Asia, this time in the form of NERICA. The improved NERICA varieties were developed in
the 1990s by mostly African scientists at WARDA, a CGIAR centre which was renamed the
Africa Rice Center in 2003, using anther culture to cross the high-yielding Asian rice with
traditional African rice. The result is a new plant type that looks like African rice during its early
stages of growth with the capacity to shade out weeds, but becomes more like Asian rice as it
reaches maturity, thus giving higher yields with few inputs.
Scientists depended on molecular biology to speed up the breeding process and to overcome
sterility, which is a key obstacle in the breeding process.
WARDA released an initial batch of seven NERICA varieties mostly in Western Africa, where it
was projected to be cultivated on more than 200,000 hectares with a production of up to 750,000
tons per year by 2006, thus saving countries nearly US$90 million in rice imports. Beyond the
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glossy projections, NERICA has yet to make a clear contribution to food security and poverty
alleviation in Western Africa despite the high level of publicity that it has received so far…
Success Stories in Africa
Eicher (1995) suggests that commercial farmers in what is now Zimbabwe launched a GR for
maize in 1960, five years ahead of the GR in India, and that Zimbabwe repeated this with a
second green revolution – for smallholders also – in the first half of the 1980s.
HYVs of wheat have had success in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya. It is thus not wholly
true that Africa missed out on the GR…
The successes of the technology packages, whether in Asia, Africa or Latin America,
were closely linked to the existence of favourable socio-economic and institutional
enabling environments, where active market possibilities played important roles
After a famine in 2001 and years of chronic hunger and poverty, in 2005 the small African
country of Malawi launched the "Agricultural Input Subsidy Program" by which vouchers are
given to smallholder farmers to buy subsidized nitrogen fertilizer and maize seeds. Within its
first year, the program was reported with extreme success, producing the largest maize harvest of
the country's history; enough to feed the country with tons of maize left over. The program has
advanced yearly ever since. Various sources claim that the program has been an unusual success,
hailing it as a "miracle" …
See more on GR in Africa at:
a) https://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Knowledge/Africa%27s%20Misse
d%20Agricultural%20Revolution%20A%20Quantitative%20Study%20of%20the%20Policy
%20Options.pdf
b) http://repository.uneca.org/bitstream/handle/10855/3810/bib-29687_I.pdf?sequence=1
c) http://www.cosv.org/download/centrodocumentazione/greenrevolution.pdf
d) http://dspace.africaportal.org/jspui/bitstream/123456789/33046/1/Waiting-for-a-Green-
Revolution-.pdf?1
GR HISTORICAL & POLITICAL BACKGROUND
THIS SECTION IS AN ASSIGNMENT FOR LEARNERS
After reading the timeline and related documents on GR in Mexico, India, and Africa,
synthesize the historical & political key points which prevailed in the implementation
of GR.
Some introductive key notes on GR in Latin America & Asia are given during
lecture (See Unit 2 PPT).
17
THE GR AND FOOD SECURITY
The crops and animal production advances of the GR thanks to the new seeds, accompanied by
chemical fertilisers, pesticides, and irrigation is analyzed in Africa, Latin America and Asia
based on relevant statistics. The impact on food security (included criticisms based on the
Malthusian principle of population) is discussed to see how and where Green Revolution
actually proven itself to be a successful strategy for ending hunger.
Production increases and food security
Production increases
In general, cereal production more than doubled in developing nations between the years 1961–
1985. Yields of rice, maize, and wheat increased steadily during that period. The production
increases can be attributed roughly equally to irrigation, fertilizer, and seed development, at least
in the case of Asian rice (see Fig. 1/2 and 2/2).
Fig. 1/2: Wheat yields in Mexico, India and Pakistan, 1950 to 2004. Baseline is 500 kg/ha.
18
Fig. 2/2: Mexico's import, export and consumption of wheat and maize (1961-2006, based on
FAO data)
Effects on food security
The effects of the Green Revolution on global food security are difficult to assess because of the
complexities involved in food systems. The world population has grown by about four billion
since the beginning of the Green Revolution and many believe that, without the Revolution,
there would have been greater famine and malnutrition…
See Fig. 4/2 and 5/2 for illustrations.
Fig. 3/2: World population vs Food Production
19
Fig. 4/2: Increase in agricultural production per capita
However, there are also claims that the Green Revolution has decreased food security for a large
number of people. One claim involves the shift of subsistence-oriented cropland to cropland
oriented towards production of grain for export or animal feed.
For example, the Green Revolution replaced much of the land used for pulses that fed
Indian peasants for wheat, which did not make up a large portion of the peasant diet.
Some criticisms generally involve some variation of the Malthusian principle of population.
Such concerns often revolve around the idea that the Green Revolution is unsustainable, and
argue that humanity is now in a state of overpopulation or overshoot with regards to the
sustainable carrying capacity and ecological demands on the Earth.
Malthusian Paul R. Ehrlich, in his book “The Population Bom”, said that "India couldn't
possibly feed 2000 million more people by 1980" and "Hundreds of millions of people
will starve to death… Ehrlich's warnings failed to materialize when India became self-
sustaining in cereal production in 1974 (six years later) as a result of the introduction of
Norman Borlaug's dwarf wheat varieties
To some modern Western sociologists and writers, increasing food production is not
synonymous with increasing food security, and is only part of a larger equation. For example,
Harvard professor Amartya Sen claimed large historic famines were not caused by decreases in
food supply, but by socioeconomic dynamics and a failure of public action. Some have
challenged the value of the increased food production of GR agriculture. Miguel A. Altieri, (a
pioneer of agroecology), writes that the comparison between traditional systems of agriculture
20
and GR agriculture has been unfair, because GR produces monocultures of cereal grains, while
traditional agriculture usually incorporates polycultures.
The Green Revolution has also led to a change in dietary habits, as fewer people are affected by
hunger and die from starvation, but many are affected by malnutrition such as iron or vitamin-A
deficiencies. High-yield rice (HYR), introduced since 1964 to poverty-ridden Asian countries,
such as the Philippines, was found to have inferior flavor and be more glutinous and less savory
than their native varieties. This caused its price to be lower than the average market value.
In the Philippines the introduction of heavy pesticides to rice production, in the early part of the
Green Revolution, poisoned and killed off fish and weedy green vegetables that traditionally
coexisted in rice paddies. These were nutritious food sources for many poor Filipino farmers
prior to the introduction of pesticides, further impacting the diets of locals
See more on GR and food security:
a) http://nabc.cals.cornell.edu/Publications/Reports/nabc_16/16_2_4_Swaminathan.pdf
b) http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/policy/wess/wess_current/2011wess_chapter3.pdf
SOCIOECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF GR
This section deals with socioeconomic and environmental dimensions of the GR. Its runs trough
the impacts on socioeconomic systems and the ecologically sustainability of GR. Specific
questions such as the reduction of diversity of agricultural crops acted by GR, the effects of
extensive use of pesticides on biodiversity, and the correlation of long term exposure to
pesticides with diseases like cancer rates are discussed.
Socioeconomic impacts
The transition from traditional agriculture, in which inputs were generated on-farm, to Green
Revolution agriculture, which required the purchase of inputs, led to the widespread
establishment of rural credit institutions. Smaller farmers often went into debt, which in many
cases results in a loss of their farmland. The increased level of mechanization on larger farms
made possible by the Green Revolution removed a large source of employment from the rural
economy…
Because wealthier farmers had better access to credit and land, the GR increased class
disparities, with the rich–poor gap widening as a result. Since some regions were able to adopt
21
GR agriculture more readily than others (for political or geographical reasons), interregional
economic disparities increased as well. Many small farmers are hurt by the dropping prices
resulting from increased production overall. The new economic difficulties of small holder
farmers and landless farm workers led to increased rural-urban migration…
Environmental impacts
Biodiversity
The spread of Green Revolution agriculture affected both agricultural biodiversity (or
agrodiversity) and wild biodiversity. There is little disagreement that the Green Revolution acted
to reduce agricultural biodiversity, as it relied on just a few high-yield varieties of each crop.
This led to concerns about the susceptibility of a food supply to pathogens that cannot be
controlled by agrochemicals, as well as the permanent loss of many valuable genetic traits bred
into traditional varieties over thousands of years.
To address these concerns, massive seed banks such as CGIAR International Plant
Genetic Resources Institute (now Bioversity International) have been established…
Two Hypothesis on wild biodiversity
1st hypothesis: By increasing production per unit of land area, agriculture will not need to
expand into new, uncultivated areas to feed a growing human population.
However, land degradation and soil nutrients depletion have forced farmers to clear up
formerly forested areas in order to keep up with production…
2nd
hypothesis: Biodiversity was sacrificed because traditional systems of agriculture that were
displaced sometimes incorporated practices to preserve wild biodiversity, and because the Green
Revolution expanded agricultural development into new areas where it was once unprofitable or
too arid…
Pesticides/Health
The consumption of the pesticides used to kill pests by humans in some cases may be increasing
the likelihood of cancer in some of the rural villages using them… Poor farming practices
including non-compliance to usage of masks and over-usage of the chemicals compound this
situation. In 1989, WHO and UNEP estimated that there were around 1 million human pesticide
poisonings annually. Some 20,000 (mostly in developing countries) ended in death, as a result of
poor labeling, loose safety standards etc.
22
Long term exposure to pesticides such as organochlorines, creosote, and sulfate have been
correlated with higher cancer rates and organochlorines DDT, chlordane, and lindane as tumor
promoters in animals. Contradictory epidemiologic studies in humans have linked phenoxy acid
herbicides or contaminants in them with soft tissue sarcoma (STS) and malignant lymphoma,
organochlorine insecticides with STS, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), leukemia, etc.
Punjab case
The Indian state of Punjab pioneered green revolution among the other states transforming India
into a food-surplus country. The state is witnessing serious consequences of intensive farming
using chemicals and pesticide. A comprehensive study conducted by Post Graduate Institute of
Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) has underlined the direct relationship between
indiscriminate use of these chemicals and increased incidence of cancer in this region. An
increase in the number of cancer cases has been reported in several villages including Jhariwala,
Koharwala, Puckka, Bhimawali, and Khara
See more on Socioeconomic & Environmental Impacts of GR:
a) http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=envstudtheses
b) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/46444932_Some_socio-
economic_consequences_of_the_Green_Revolution
LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE GR
This section sums up the GR positive and negative impacts and examines implications for future
technology transfer especially in Africa. Narratives on the underlying causes for the failure of
the GR in Africa are pointed out like: technology imported without enabling policies, institutions
and infrastructure investments; low demand and marginal production environments, “orphan”
staple food crops with little research backlog (e.g. cassava), etc.
Food Production
The green revolution was a technology package comprising material components of improved
high-yielding varieties (HYVs) of two staple cereals (rice and wheat), irrigation or controlled
Norman Borlaug's response to criticism
“Some of the environmental lobbyists of the Western nations are the salt of the earth, but many of
them are elitists. They've never experienced the physical sensation of hunger. They do their
lobbying from comfortable office suites in Washington or Brussels... If they lived just one month
amid the misery of the developing world, as I have for fifty years, they'd be crying out for tractors
and fertilizer and irrigation canals and be outraged that fashionable elitists back home were trying
to deny them these things"
23
water supply and improved moisture utilization, fertilizers and pesticides and associated
management skills.
The utilization of this technology package on suitable land in suitable socio-economic enabling
environments resulted in greatly increased yields and incomes for many farmers in Asia, Latin
America and in some developing countries elsewhere…
Statistics indicate that yields of these two cereals, and of maize, approximately doubled
between the 1960s and the 1990s.
The GR has been a major technological achievement, and its effects are continuing… The GR
technologies were not without their problems: the need for a significant use of agrochemical-
based pest and weed control in some crops has raised environmental concerns as well as concern
about human health. As irrigation areas expanded, water management required skills that were
not always there; and there were new scientific challenges to be tackled. Although HYVs often
replaced older landraces, it is less certain that the world has actually suffered significant genetic
erosion
Food Consumption
Real food prices in Asia, indeed throughout the world, have steadily declined over the past 30
years through the application of yield-increasing, cost-reducing technologies built around
improved seed-fertilizer-weed control components.
Lower real food prices may benefit the poor relatively more than the rich, since the
poor spend a larger proportion of their available income on food.
Consumption levels may have increased for farmers, but the costs of inputs may have offset
some of the yield gains and it is not clear that the yield increases would have translated into
improvements in nutrition, due to the many factors between increases in food and resources and
food intake. Consumption levels of the urban poor and landless may not have increased due to a
decrease in real wages and reduced purchasing power; in addition, there may have been a
reduction in intake of pulses, vegetables and meat due to prices increases in these foods, which
may in some cases be linked to the Green Revolution…
Socioeconomic
The Green Revolution may have increased inequalities in communities due to increased
mechanization and decreased labor opportunities for the poor… Food-insecure people neither
consistently produce enough food for themselves nor have the purchasing power to buy food
from other producers. During times of famine, food may simply not be available at any price…
24
Alternative socioeconomic scenarios
1st Scenario assumes a significant development of the post-General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade (GATT) global economy. In this scenario, continued growth in world trade will allow
food-deficit countries in the South to produce and export industrial goods and services that
should enable them to purchase significant quantities of food from the food-surplus countries of
the North…
2nd
Scenario suggests that poor countries of the South must increase their own food production
significantly and in such a way that it specifically alleviates food insecurity. Towards this end, a
number of mechanisms may be invoked:
1. Increased agricultural research and development efforts aimed at increasing productivity
per hectare of land and unit of labour;
2. improved extension services, through governmental and non-governmental channels, that
will enable all farmers to use the results of research and reap the benefits from
technological advances;
3. improved infrastructural and socio-economic arrangements, including enabling policies
(e.g. fiscal policies, land tenure policies, good governance, popular participation, suitable
credit schemes and institution-building) that will allow all sections of the community to
sustain the increased production.
Environment
The Green Revolution has also been widely criticized for causing environmental damage.
Excessive and inappropriate use of fertilizers and pesticides has polluted waterways, poisoned
agricultural workers, and killed beneficial insects and other wildlife… Often ignored, however,
is the positive impact of higher yields in saving huge areas of forest and other environmentally
fragile lands that would otherwise have been needed for farming.
– In Asia cereal production doubled between 1970 and 1975, yet the total land area
cultivated with cereals increased by only 4 percent.
Politics
Increased concentration of power and control over the food system is one outcome that can be
linked, although not causally, to the Green Revolution Increased concentration of power and
control over the food system is one outcome that can be linked, although not causally, to the
Green Revolution… The lessons from the green revolution taught that scientific advances alone
cannot solve the food security problems of developing countries. Political leaders must create
suitable socio-economic and institutional enabling environments, while access to credit and
markets should play a key role in improving productivity…
25
Sustainable progress nearly always involves broad popular participation, allowing people
themselves to select from among the new tools and to blend these with the technological, social,
cultural and economic settings which were created by their traditional systems… Those
countries that have achieved greater national and household food security, also for the poor, have
a track record of strong political emphasis on agriculture, careful consideration of economic
incentives for agricultural production, and human and economic investments in research,
extension and training…
See more on lessons learned from the GR:
a) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0734975011001212
b) http://www.soc.iastate.edu/sapp/greenrevolution.pdf*
c) https://www.afdb.org/fr/news-and-events/what-africa-can-learn-from-chinas-green-
revolution-in-its-agro-allied-industrialization-quest-16547/
d) http://www.biotechnologynotes.com/essays/key-lessons-learned-from-green-revolution/64
e) https://fse.fsi.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/prabhu_pingali_presentation.pdf
CONCLUSION
GM Crops the New GR for Africa?
A careful review of the developments in agriculture in Africa shows that the biotechnology
agenda, specifically the push for genetically modified (GM) seeds and crops, actually preceded
the orchestrated call for a New Green Revolution for the continent (see Fig. 5/2 on the Status of
Genetically Modified (GM) Crops in Africa in 2015 for illustration).
Case study: Burkina Faso’s Bt cotton reversal: Why Africa’s largest producer of GM cotton
is phasing it out?
– Read document : “Six Years of Successful Bt Cotton Cultivation in Burkina Faso” at:
http://africenter.isaaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Burkina-Faso-Bt-cotton-progress-2013.pdf
– Read document : “Burkina Faso’s Bt cotton Reversal” at :
http://www.ensser.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Mex16.DOWD-
URIBE.Burkina.Faso.GM.Crops.FINAL.Version.2.pdf
26
Fig. 5/2: Status of Genetically Modified (GM) Crops in Africa in 2015
27
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